Do I need Pro Office?

DEVONthink Scenarios
1

I’m a long time DT Pro user having a couple databases related to my interests. I’m now hell bent on going paperless since I have a small consulting business, two homes, grown kids with estate planning issues, etc. etc… I am buried in paper.

I’ve begun by creating a new database, importing files I had already scanned into PDF’s and scanning additional paper that needs to be kept, but not in paper form. This is a database for my vacation home and all the Cap Ex, receipts, ownership documents, maintenance records and so on. I did all of this in DT PRO with a flat bed Cannon. ( A real chore). I don’t even want to attempt that at home, but I do have a multi sheet single side scanner there.

The real question is: Why or how would I benefit from OCR? I can search for any text in any PDF and find the document I’m looking for. What, if any for me are the benefits of DTP Office, given the amount of scanning in, I will be doing?

Much appreciated.

2

Unless you have already run OCR on the PDFs produced by your scanner, they are only images and do not contain searchable text.

3

Bill:

Thanks for the quick response. As far as I know, I have no OCR software, just the normal driver that comes with a Canon Lide flatbed.

Yet, I’ve experimented and I can search for any text within a PDF and come up with the document. The text has nothing to do with the name of the file. Not sure how this may be different than what you mean, if it is?

4

Are the PDFs you’re referencing listed as PDF or PDF+Text in your database. For me, I know that my searches don’t pull up any word in a document that is simply a PDF unless it’s contained in the title. Just curious.

5

You got it. I just did a couple quick checks and found that PDF’s no text are not searchable.

That being the case, I think DTPO is next on my shopping list.

Thanks for the tip.